Inside The Bills

Stevie Johnson’s day wasn’t done on Sunday after he pulled in the game-tying touchdown pass with two seconds remaining.

After the ensuing kickoff Carolina had one second remaining for Cam Newton to chuck a desperation pass down the field. The Bills put their prevent defense out on the field with Stevie Johnson as one of the deep safeties in the right side of the end zone.

“I’m back there ready to get an interception on Cam Newton,” said Johnson. “I was ready to get a touchdown and an interception. I was ready it was a play that we practice. Just a simple prevent and I’m out there on the side just trying to sneak in there. I was hoping he was going to throw it. Kiko decided to ensure the win.”

The Carolina Panthers were already down one cornerback in James Dockery, who was out with a thumb injury. They also had a young cornerback on the inactive list in Melvin White. In hindsight they would’ve preferred to have all the healthy corners up for Sunday’s game.

Carolina CB Josh Thomas went out in the first half with a concussion. CB Josh Norman missed time with a thigh injury and S Charles Godfrey was carted off with an ankle injury. All told the Panthers were down to just three healthy corners and it had an impact on the final offensive play of the game for Buffalo.

With six seconds left on a 2nd-and-1 at the two-yard line, Norman, who returned to the game had Chris Hogan in man to man coverage lined up outside. Reserve CB D.J. Moore had Stevie Johnson inside in the slot man to man. Moore isn’t typically the team’s slot corner, Captain Munnerlyn typically slides inside when defending three wide sets.

Hogan ran a slant inside while Johnson slid behind him on a corner route.

It looked as though Norman thought they were staying with their coverage assignment through the entire play, while Moore thought they would switch coverage assignments if they crossed their face. Moore stopped covering Johnson to switch to Hogan and bumped into Norman, who stayed with Hogan. Johnson was wide open for the game-tying TD.

“We got rubbed off, is basically what happened,” said Carolina head coach Ron Rivera. “We’re in man coverage right there. We’ve got to work through the pick, make sure we’re communicating and get through, and not get picked off. It was a tough situation, and unfortunately, it worked to their benefit.”

Bills CB Leodis McKelvin has not been a part of too many come from behind victories in Buffalo, but he was convinced they were going to win the game after Carolina’s late field goal made it 23-17 with 1:38 remaining and the Bills out of timeouts.

“I wasn’t worried, I wasn’t watching the game, truly,” said McKelvin. “I knew we were going to win. I told Aaron (Williams) before they kicked the field goal, if they kick the field goal we’re going to win this game. They kicked the field goal I was on the sidelines chilling out. Not paying attention to the game, but I wasn’t worried at all.”

I’m not sure if there was a Bills fan that was as relaxed at that point in time.

The last time the Bills faced the Panthers was in Charlotte in 2009. Buffalo was in the last year of the Dick Jauron regime, and had no business winning the game in Carolina that day. Marshawn Lynch rushed for just 40 yards and Ryan Fitzpatrick had just 123 yards passing on the day, but one player had a big hand in making those numbers irrelevant in a 20-9 Bills victory.

Jairus Byrd had a pair of interceptions. The first put Buffalo up early as he picked off Jake Delhomme at the Panthers 45 and returned it to the Carolina seven-yard line. Lynch would score on the next series for a 7-0 lead.

In the second half, Byrd again picked off Delhomme deep over the middle on a tipped pass at his own 40-yard line and returned it to the Carolina 27. Again the Bills put the ball in the end zone on a two-yard strike from Fitzpatrick to Lee Evans.

George Wilson had the third interception off Delhomme, who three for 325 yards on the day.

Carolina outgained Buffalo 425 yards to 167, but the turnovers, which included a muffed punt return late by Carolina were 4-0.

With the running threat that Cam Newton can be the Bills will have to be mindful of the read option plays, something that Buffalo’s defense has had trouble with in the past.

Seattle’s Russell Wilson victimized the Bills in 2012 with the read option and Buffalo’s defense had a measure of trouble with the read option plays run by Pat White in the preseason game against Washington a few weeks ago. The question is whether or not to put a spy on Newton.

It appeared that the Seahawks used MLB Bobby Wagner as a spy at times in the Week 1 game between Seattle and Carolina. Newton had just five carries for 38 yards against a pretty athletic linebacking corps for Seattle.

We asked head coach Doug Marrone if spying Newton has been a popular tactic of Carolina’s previous opponents.

“Athletically anyone you put in there to spy on him you’re going to be in trouble,” said Marrone. “I think he can beat that matchup. Not to say that we won’t look at that and give away some plans. He’s a very, very good quarterback I don’t ever want to lose sight of that. But he’s also an outstanding athlete.”

He gave up the game-winning touchdown pass to the Seahawks last week in Carolina’s Week 1 loss to Seattle, but CB Josh Thomas will remain in the Panthers starting lineup on defense.

That according to the Charlotte Observer, who quoted Panthers head coach Ron Rivera as saying the following about the University at Buffalo alum.

“It was one bad play,” Rivera said. “Hopefully, it doesn’t become two.”

Carolina doesn’t have too many other options. Fourth corner James Dockery is out Sunday with a thumb injury. Josh Norman is the Panthers’ nickel corner, but he lines up outside and kicks starting corner Captain Munnerlyn to the slot.

The Carolina Panthers don’t look as though they’ll be missing any key starters that appeared on their injury report. LB Jon Beason did not practice Thursday with a knee problem, but practiced fully on Friday and is listed as probable for Sunday’s game against the Bills.

Panthers head coach Ron Rivera said that Beason would be limited to 25-35 snaps in Sunday’s game according to the Charlotte Observer.

Cam Newton is a unique quarterback. Not many signal callers that stand 6’5″ 245 pounds can move like he can, especially when he takes off to run. Buffalo has employed a pretty mobile quarterback on their roster to emulate the Panthers franchise QB.

Practice squad QB Thad Lewis, an athlete himself, has been imitating Newton on Buffalo’s scout team offense all week.

“That’s what you have to do to give the guys the looks,” Lewis told Buffalobills.com. “Basically running the option and giving them the best look possible. We’re trying to do everything he does so the defense can be ready for Sunday.”

Typically even the offensive players on Buffalo’s practice squad watch and study the defensive film of their upcoming opponent so they’re prepared in the event of an emergency call up that week. But Lewis found some additional Carolina film waiting for him on his I-Pad.

“When I went to look at Carolina defensive film on my I-Pad I saw that there was some Carolina offense in there too,” said Lewis. “So I watched Cam a little bit to get a feel for how he moves because you want to prepare the guys as best you can. So there was a little multi-tasking this week.”

Lewis knows right now being the best Cam Newton this week is the way he can make the best contribution to the team’s success on Sunday.

“It’s not hard. You read the cards and go,” he said. “Then just basically try to do all the little things right with the reads and the option so our defense is ready.”

The Bills Week 2 matchup with Carolina on Sunday still has tickets available. Bills President and CEO Russ Brandon laid out the numbers and plan for this week with the blackout deadline approaching on Thursday at 1 pm.

“We do have some tickets to move,” said Brandon, who appeared on the Howard Simon show on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550. “We have about 1,600 tickets left remaining for the game. The deadline is Thursday at 1 pm. Tickets are moving and we’re confident we’ll be able to get the game sold out.”

When asked if the team would buy out the remaining tickets to make it a sellout to get the game televised, Brandon said that won’t happen.

“No, the plan is to sell every ticket we can,” he said. “Our fans have done a great job stepping up, but we need to move through these tickets. We’ll be selling right through kickoff because we will have some visiting (team ticket) returns probably on Friday and Saturday. So we’ll have tickets right up to kickoff.”

When asked how confident he is in getting the game on TV, Brandon believes it will happen.

“I’m fairly confident,” he said. “Actually I’m more than fairly confident. I think we’ll get it done. The sales staff is doing an excellent job and the fans have done a good job the first couple of days this week and we’ve got a lot going on with the Wall of Fame ceremony Sunday as well.”